


The Four Individuals and How It All Began

by superna_tau_ral91



Series: Love Knows No Boundaries [2]
Category: B.A.P, EXO (Band), Infinite (Band)
Genre: Blind Character, Bullying, Choking, Deaf Character(s), Divorce, Gen, Near Death Experiences, Selective mutism tbh, Sign Language, Triggers, Twins, brother complex for that one guy lol, mute character, no it is not incest, too-close-for-comfort brotherly love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-17 19:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5883343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superna_tau_ral91/pseuds/superna_tau_ral91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blind, Deaf, Mute, Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing. These are the differences among the individuals...and these are their stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lee Jongdae

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The background story of Lee Jongdae.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are not familiar with honorifics within Chinese and Korean family titles, here are some clarifications:  
> > gege/-ge = older brother, called by younger siblings, regardless of gender  
> > (-)hyung = older brother, exclusively called by younger male siblings  
> > hyungdeul = plural of hyung, in respect to Korean language; "hyungs" for English's sake  
> > (-)oppa = older brother, exclusively called by younger female siblings
> 
> So yeah, the honorifics are interchangeably used in the Lee household.

Lee Jongdae was born in the countryside, to a Chinese father who was a fisherman, and a Korean mother, who was a farmer. At that time, he was the youngest of the three, and to twin brothers, until Sunyoung came along a year later. Jongdae was a happy, healthy kid; his laughter and eye smiles were enough to melt his family members’ hearts whenever they saw him. As he grew up, his gentle nature and innocent charm made him quite a sight to everyone’s eyes. Wufan, the second oldest brother, came up with a Chinese nickname for him, Chen. He thought the name suited him the most because it was close to Cheng, meaning orange, a sweet fruit; and Jongdae was a sweet kid. Eventually the nickname became popular among the family and friends to call him by. Wufan was almost disappointed that his nickname for Jongdae became overused, because it was intended for Wufan himself to use alone. However, he made a compromise with himself by coming up with Chen-chen, and he would only use it when it is just the two of them. Jongdae was kind to his family and friends, always giving them endless cheers of support and love. He was pretty cute and strikingly handsome for a kid, with a prominent jaw line and high cheekbones that made you really want to pinch his cheeks in an affectionate way.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

When Jongdae turned 10 years old, there was an unfortunate incident that led to his blindness. Wufan felt responsible for the incident that ever since, he had sworn to never leave his brother alone again. Jongdae was climbing a tree under the supervision of his brother, Wufan. Minseok, the eldest brother, had been out with Yue, their father, fishing out at sea. Their mother, Minyoung, was taking care of Sunyoung inside the house. Wufan was sitting down on the porch bench, keeping a close eye on Jongdae out in the grove, near the harvest fields. Jongdae had always liked to climb, and it was hard to stop the little ball of energy.

That day, the sky appeared to be a cloudy haze. Wufan had a feeling it was going to rain soon, but he ignored it and kept his watch on his younger brother. Hearing Jongdae squeal with delight at his own success of climbing higher, it was music to Wufan’s ears. He feels that Jongdae knew what he was putting himself into; the boy was always cautious of himself, testing out the strength of the branches each day and knowing which branches were off-limits to climb. Despite that feeling, Wufan still kept his eye on him. Wufan watched as Jongdae finally reached the limit of the tree’s strength and held tight to the strong trunk, looking down at his _gege_ with a bright smile on his face.

Jongdae giggled and shouted out to Wufan, “ _GEGE!_ LOOK AT ME!! I’M ON TOP OF THE WORLD!!!”

Wufan could not prevent his smile from appearing as he saw his younger brother squirming to get onto the thick limb adjacent to the trunk, laughing with excitement, his arms still held fast to the trunk, his legs swinging. Despite the cloudy weather, Jongdae was like the sun to him.

Then there was a flash of lightning in the clouds behind Jongdae, and a boom of thunder. Wufan felt as if there was a grip on his heart as he quickly stood up and rushed over to the tree. Suddenly, the rain fell in showers and not too long afterwards, pouring down mercilessly.

Before he knew it, there was a flash of lightning and Jongdae fell through the tree. Wufan caught him, though his brother was heavily injured. His mother was fortunate to quickly call the ambulance, and soon, Jongdae, with his family, transported to the nearby hospital. Waiting for the news was torture for Minyoung and her children. Yue and Minseok rejoined the family shortly after Jongdae was taken to the examination room. After many hours had passed, the doctors finally came out and told them the good news and then the bad news. The good news was that he was incredibly alive with some injuries that would take time to heal, but the bad news was that his eyesight has severely deteriorated due to his extreme collisions with the tree branches as he fell. His left eye was permanently damaged and his right eye was showing signs of blindness, so there was no hope for anything to be done to return any sight or improve his vision.

Wufan felt so guilty that day, and the feeling did not ease even after Jongdae was released from the hospital a few weeks later. Wufan had distanced himself from him because he was reminded of the pain, and of what he had seen that day. He thought Jongdae would never forgive him for not taking care of him. It was quite the opposite; Jongdae had continued his attempts to get closer to his brother. In his world of darkness with the familiarity of the life Jongdae had before he became blind and the unknown he was about to face in his blind state, Wufan’s hands and voice were the only sources of comfort for Jongdae to trust in. Sure, he got along with his family really well, but they did not provide the comfort and the shelter like Wufan did. It left Jongdae miserable on the inside for days.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

One day, Minseok had enough of Wufan and snapped at him, “Wake the hell up, and snap out of your misery, because Jongdae had it worse than you, but has he been miserable about his blindness? No! …at least, not all the time. He’s miserable for you… Keeps asking me about you, Wufan-ah… He’s still waiting for you to come back to him. He needs you more than he needs the rest of us, and I’m not even that surprised.”

Minseok placed his hands on his younger brother’s shoulders, turning Wufan to look at him. “You listen to me now, and you listen good. I am so tired of seeing my two brothers being like this. It is not right to be miserable for so long, you need to end it now and start looking on the bright side of things. Go talk to him.”

Jongdae was in the living room, sitting on the sofa, with his legs drawn close to his chest and his arms hugging his legs. He stared towards the space where he would have seen flowers blooming, had he not been blind. A tear was falling down from his eye, and he did not do anything to wipe it off.

**_Rustles of footsteps on the floor…_ **

**_The sound of a throat clearing…_ **

**_A slight dip on the couch to his left…_ **

**_A woodsy scent…_ **

It was that familiar woodsy scent that Jongdae had learned to acquire and associate with his brother since his blindness, and he had missed it for so long.

Wufan could not look Jongdae in the face, and had been staring straight ahead. He did not notice that his brother had slightly turned his head to catch that familiar scent.

He did not expect his brother to tackle him from the side with a hug, Jongdae’s head resting against his shoulder. Wufan slowly moved his arm to wrap around Jongdae’s shoulders, and Jongdae wiggled around to sit on his brother’s lap. The younger brother rested his head against Wufan’s neck, with his arms clinging around Wufan’s chest and his legs resting on either side of Wufan’s body.

“D-don’t leave me, Fan- _ge_ …please,” Jongdae whined softly, sniffling now and then. “I couldn’t hear your voice and I couldn’t feel your hands for days… I felt so lost, and Min- _ge_ and Sunyoung, Mama and Baba, they tried to comfort me and I’m grateful for them, but I didn’t have you, _gege_. Please don’t leave me alone…” Jongdae squirmed a little, moving his legs to wrap around his older brother’s torso. “I just need you with me, _gege_ , please…”

Wufan could not say anything, being slightly caught off guard by Jongdae’s pleas, but he recovered and slowly brought his hands around his youngest brother. One hand cupped the back of Jongdae’s head, and the other resting on the lower back. He certainly did not expect his brother to say something like that, and hugging him closely, he swore to himself that he would care for Jongdae for the rest of his life, not letting him out of his sight.

Silent tears fell on the brothers’ shoulders, as Wufan rocked Jongdae gently on the couch, the older brother whispering streams of apology and the younger cooing words of reassurance, forgiving him every other line.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

The family learned to accommodate things for their blind family member. Most importantly, they moved things around in the house so Jongdae could walk around without colliding with anything. Jongdae learned to read Braille and how to detect his surroundings by sonar detection using the clicking of his tongue.

Days went by when Jongdae practiced getting around the house, because it felt a lot different experiencing the house in his blind state as opposed to when he was not blind. He was not sure what was what, which was which, or even where was what. All he could see was a darkness that continued to shroud him 24/7.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

Time passed for the family without any problems, as Minyoung continued to farm, as Yue continued to fish out at sea almost all day, and as Jongdae and his siblings continued to do their household tasks and schoolwork with ease. When it was time for the brothers to attend university, Jongdae found himself crying despite him being 17 years old.

His brothers were leaving, and Jongdae was about to be left with his sister and parents. He did not want Wufan to go because he was his source of comfort; nor even Minseok-hyung, because that would make Jongdae the man of the house once they left, and he felt that no one could do it better than Minseok-hyung. The hyung that always cooked with ingredients fresh from the sea and from the farm, the hyung that slept last after checking on all of his sleeping siblings, the hyung who made sure everyone was satisfied. That was Minseok-hyung.

The family was standing outside of the house when the bus came around to pick up passengers heading to the metropolitan city. Wufan and Minseok had their college stuff ready to go. The parents stood with pride for their oldest twin children, going to college for the first time. Sunyoung, now 16, was hugging Minseok, cheering her older brothers on. Only Jongdae was left as the teary-eyed family member, clinging onto Wufan. As Jongdae breathed in his brother’s scent and cried against his chest, his hands clutched to the back of Wufan’s shirt. Wufan had one arm around his brother’s back and the other hand cradling his head, gently shushing him.

“Chenchen-ah, there are times to cry and times to be happy. This is the moment for happiness. I’m going to miss you a lot, believe me, because you’ve always been my favorite dongsaeng, but it doesn’t mean that Minseok-hyung and I won’t come back. We’ll come back, just you wait,” Wufan held him close to his body, patting his head and rocking him slowly. Jongdae refused to let these words assure him. The family watched them with a slight tinge of sadness, because they knew how close the brothers had been since the lightning incident.

Wufan whispered to Jongdae, ignoring his sniffles and hiccups, “Chenchen…I’ll make a promise to you: When the time comes that you are about to graduate from school and looking for universities to apply, go for the ones in _hyungs_ ’ area. Work hard and study hard to get in whatever college you choose; I will help take care of it. Don’t worry about finding a place to stay; you will be able to move in with us long before college starts. Okay? Aigoo, please don’t cry anymore, Chenchen… It’ll be okay.” Wufan rubbed Jongdae’s back, sparing a glance to their family. They were watching them with soft smiles. He placed a kiss on Jongdae’s temple before whispering again in his youngest brother’s ear. “Be a good man and stay strong for me, Jongdae-yah, hm?”

Wufan felt Jongdae nodding against his chest, and slowly the koala grip that Jongdae had on him began to subside. Wufan let go of him, and lifted his hands to cup his beloved brother’s cheeks and brush his thumbs to wipe off the tears. Jongdae had his hands wrapped around his brother’s wrists, looking down at the ground. He then felt Wufan kiss his forehead, and heard him mutter, “Don’t cry… Just remember our promise.”

With that, Jongdae nodded and regained his composure. They pulled away, and Minseok went to hug Jongdae. Jongdae had no more tears left to cry, but his face was still twisted in sadness when he felt the familiar hands of his oldest brother. With a soft sniffle, Jongdae hugged him almost with a hint of desperation. Minseok comforted him, with a soft caress on Jongdae’s head, saying, “ _Aigoo_ , you’re gonna make me cry now… Chennie-yah, it’s okay…you’ll do fine. Your _hyungdeul_ believe you can do it. Everyone here knows who you are so don’t ever change. Stay true to who you are, because if you do that, everything will work out in the end.”

Minseok felt Jongdae nodding on his shoulder. Pulling away, he gripped Jongdae’s shoulder lightly and ruffled his hair before standing back. Seeing Jongdae’s sullen face almost made Minseok want to cry too, but he had to stay strong. He gave his youngest brother a light pinch on the cheek before brushing the same area gently with his thumb.

“We will come back and visit, I give you my word. Even if I have to drag Wufan out of bed,” he chuckles, and it gets Jongdae chuckling too.

The hand on Jongdae’s cheek disappears and Jongdae could hear the footsteps across the ground and onto the bus. He could only stand there, a little thankful that he could not see his brothers physically leaving, because otherwise, it would have just made it more difficult for him to let them go. His ears picked up on Sunyoung nearing him as his nose caught her grassy scent, and he felt her hand holding his. With a gentle voice, she said, “Oppa…it’ll be okay. You and I, we’ll work together to help out appa and umma.” He felt her squeeze his hand gently and swing it to and fro.

People around the town gathered near the road where the bus was parked, to say to their family members “goodbye and good luck”s, “bye”s and “Do well in school! Make us proud but make yourself proud first!!”s and “We love you! We’ll miss you!”s. He heard the bus’s engine starting and he could then make out the voices shouting “CHENCHEN-AH! I LOVE YOU!” and “WE’LL SEE YOU SOON!”

Jongdae smiled with dried tears, and shouted back with a giggle, “LOVE YOU TOO, FAN- _GE_! I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU TWO NEXT TIME, TOO!” He heard his family, Wufan, and Minseok laughing at the joke; his sister nudging him with “Oppa, that was very witty…” Suddenly, he could hear the bus’s engine roaring and then purring; by every passing second, the engine was getting quieter and quieter until there was silence. Jongdae knew then that the bus had left them. He lifted his hand to wave, despite it all.

What Jongdae could not see was that Wufan had his head stuck out the window and was watching the family, waving as he and the bus left the town in their trail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all for Jongdae's background. Although...more of Jongdae's incident will be revealed much later on in the story of Love Knows No Boundaries. Parallel to this, the main story will start with Jongdae. The next chapter after this will be Daehyun's story, which includes Sign Language.
> 
> The lightning incident is abridged here. More on that in the LKNB storyline later.


	2. Yoo/Jung Daehyun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The background story of formerly!Yoo/currently!Jung Daehyun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Readers, this is where you'll begin to read Deaf dialogues. The link is right [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5949934/chapters/13676773) for you to open, if you need it.
> 
> In addition to the previous chapter's notes about honorifics:  
> > (-)noona = older sister, exclusively called by younger male siblings

Before there was the Jung family, there was the Yoo family. The Yoo family had a complicated life. The father, Minwoo, was an ordinary businessman; the mother, Boyoung, was an art teacher/stay-at-home mom, and Sunhwa was only 3 years old. When the twins, Yoo Daehyun and Youngjae, were born, the family rejoiced because they believed in the superstition that to bear twins would bring fortune to the family. However, the fortune brought to the parents had a price they had to pay. That price was their obliviousness to their own child who was born deaf. It was not until a few months later after they brought their twins home did the family noticed something was wrong with Daehyun.

Sunhwa was playing peek-a-boo with Daehyun and moved to different spots so Daehyun could find her. She would pop out from behind and surprise Daehyun, or move to an obviously visible hiding spot. Daehyun giggled and squealed every time he saw his target. Sunhwa decided to move to a spot behind Daehyun on his left. He did not turn around and was looking instead at his mother, who was taking care of Youngjae.

Sunhwa waited a few minutes, hoping that Daehyun would remember to look for her. Patience slowly wearing thin, she called out to him.

“Daehyunnie-yah! Look over here!”

Daehyun showed no reaction, only laughed and played with his fingers, as he cooed away at the sight of his mother.

“Daehyun-ah? Lookie here~”

He still did not look.

“DAEHYUN-AH. I’M RIGHT BEHI-“ 

“YAH, YOO SUNHWA,” her mother scolded. “Be quiet and leave Daehyun be. You’ll scare your brothers!”

Sunhwa whined, “But mommy, Daehyunnie isn’t looking at me. He’s not hearing me shout his name!!”

Boyoung glanced at her baby son who was looking back at her with a curious expression. She replied, “Maybe Daehyun’s tired of the game. I’m surprised you’re not tired since you were the one who kept moving about.” She gave a smile towards her daughter to lighten the joke.

Sunhwa pouted and frowned, “But he doesn’t look tired, Mommy. Look, he’s still giggling and putting his fingers in his mouth.”

They looked to Daehyun and then Daehyun glanced up with wide eyes, his thumb in between his thick lips. He started, slightly leaning back before letting out a cooing noise and a giggle. He squealed loudly as he gave an eye smile.

They thought that Daehyun was just being in his own little world, laughing and crying at times. Over time, when they came to him face-to-face, they noticed that Daehyun would start a bit, looking up with surprise in his eyes and then smiling at them. This reaction had happened one too many times.

The father, at that time, had been getting increasingly busy with his work, and left the child-rearing responsibilities to his wife and daughter. Often, he’d come home in the evening and interact with them. Sunhwa suspected something was wrong with Daehyun after playing with him so often. She told her mother of her thoughts and they decided to test it out. They gave their twins toys to play with in the playpen, and while they’re playing, the mother would call out to them and Sunhwa would clap in cheer.

Youngjae was responding to his surroundings well, reacting with a smile, babbling nonsense and crawling over to the mother. Daehyun, however, did not. He would play with his toys but show no reaction to the sudden noises or his name being called. The mother thought he was being ignorant, but when she came up to him, he showed a completely different reaction: looking up with a start and then giggling while reaching out. This concerned the mother very much.

Boyoung was worried and told Minwoo about Daehyun. Together, they consulted with their family doctors and child psychologists, and found out Daehyun had been deaf since birth, and Youngjae was lucky to be born without any complications. Upon hearing this, the father became disappointed and looked at his baby sons with confusion, while the mother seemed distraught. The parents were offered surgery for cochlear implants to help their son hear, but it was costly, especially for a baby at such a young age. Also, it was too much for them with their financial state. They did not want to risk it so they were left with the other option, to take up sign language to raise and educate their deaf child.

Within the two years after the twins’ birth, the whole family began to enjoy this new additional language, and had mastered signing and talking at the same time without any difficulty when Daehyun is around. In turn, Daehyun had learned to speak, but it still remained to be somewhat unintelligible; the family did not mind, because they had been used to hearing his voice going in pairs with his signing.

Minwoo continued to make enough money for the family to live on and the mother was doing well with her artistic career, juggling with her work and family life. Sunhwa, only 3 years older than the twins, helped their mother out by taking care of the twins, often signing with Daehyun.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

However, life decided to throw some bitter lemons. Arguments broke out between the parents as the mother constantly decided against surgery whereas the father wanted surgery, so that when he owned a company, he could one day pass it on to his oldest son, Daehyun. He did not want to have his son suffer discrimination and lose pride because of his disability.

When Daehyun and Youngjae were twelve years old and Sunhwa fifteen, their lives took a surprise turn when their parents decided to divorce. Sunhwa and Youngjae had constantly heard their parents breaking out into verbal arguments now and then, but the parents seemed to make up the next day. Daehyun had no idea what their fights were all about because his siblings did not want him to make it a big deal. This was something that the parents had to solve by themselves and to try to settle for a solution. This time, it was for real that their parents were splitting up.

One family dinner night, Daehyun noticed there was a tense atmosphere hanging above the family. The moment they started eating, there was no immediate dinner conversation. He glanced up to his siblings who were sitting across the table from him, and noticed how both of them were giving nervous glances between their parents, Daehyun, and each other. He moved his gaze to his mother on his left, who was cutting her bulgogi and raised it to her mouth with her chopsticks. She picked up a danmuji, a yellow pickled radish, and ate it as well. Something about her face struck his curiosity, she appeared to either not enjoy her food or be thinking deeply about something.

 _How odd, she usually would say something about the food…_ Daehyun thought to himself.

Glancing down to his plate, he picked up a piece of bulgogi with his chopsticks, some rice with his spoon and ate the food. It tasted really delicious. Yet he felt bothered with the silence brought upon the table when he looked up again at his family. He shifted his eyes to his father on his right, who looked really focused into cutting up the cooked bulgogi into big chunks of meat and eating them up with the danmuji and kimchi.

_Something strange is going on here…Why are they being like this?_

Daehyun put down his eating utensils, and under the table, tapped his sister’s foot with his foot to get her attention. Sunhwa jumped a bit and looked at her brother with a furrowed look. He gave her a questioning look and tilted his head first in one direction towards their mom and then to the other towards their dad. Sunhwa shook her head, and mouthed,  _Later._

Frustrated, Daehyun raises his hands to tap on his parents’ arms. They started with a jolt, as if their son had woken them up from a trance. Panicked and curious eyes were on Daehyun as he raises his hands to sign.

“ _Ap’a. Umma. K’enshanayo?_ ” [{Appa. Umma.} you-two o-k?] _(Dad, Mom, is everything okay?)_ The parents nodded their heads quickly, assured him that everything was fine with forced smiles, and they immediately looked down to their plates. With a glance to his siblings who were looking almost guilty, Daehyun sensed the parents were lying, and insisted further because he desperately wanted to know what was going on.

“Enng!” Daehyun let out a grunt, and all eyes were on him again. He started to sign the next few moments voicelessly, but soon, he had let out an outburst of _“…WAE?!”_ That causes the whole family to flinch a little. _“Bo, bo, bo, mord’n ’sang’ae…Umma…Noona, Yongshay…Ap’a,_ hoo! _...Z’bal!”_

[Tonight, we family eat++, quiet. Before, talk+++ laugh+++ “a-lot”. I “don’t-know” how happen, but some point since-then, every-day LESS. WHY TONIGHT DIFFERENT, WHY?? *Daehyun has an expression of hurt on his face* I “LOOK-LOOK-LOOK” EVERYONE ACT STRANGE. *Daehyun shifts his body towards his mother* UMMA “DISTRACT++”, *He shifts again towards his siblings* NOONA, YOUNGJAE, YOU-TWO “LOOK-AROUND” “LOOK-EACH-OTHER” EXPRESSION WORRY, *He shifts once more towards his father* APPA WOW FOCUS STEAK CUT-CUT. INTERACTION NONE. “WHAT’S-UP”? TELL-ME PLEASE!] _(Tonight, this family eats in silence. We used to talk and laugh so much in the past; since then, these moments have gotten less. Why does tonight have to be different? Why?! I noticed the four of you were acting strange. Mom looked so distracted cutting her steak, Sunhwa-noona and Youngjae were looking nervous, and Dad was_ really _focused on cutting his steak. What is going on? Tell me, please!)_

The family stared at Daehyun, a bit flabbergasted. He had been signing with big and fast movements, making some guttural noises here and there, and his face was showing desperation, confusion, and deep concern.

Minwoo gave a pat on his son’s shoulder, and shook his head with a stiff smile. He replied, “Son, it’s nothing to worry about. We just have a lot in our minds to think about.” [Nothing. Mom and I, us-two think+++].

Boyoung slammed her spoon on the table and Daehyun jumped at the sudden vibration on the table surface under his elbows. He looked to his mom just as she growled at her husband, “How can it be nothing to worry about? You went without _my_ permission to talk to the doctor about _your_ interest in cochlear implants. You came back from work earlier than I had expected and told me about your conversation with the doctor about some hope of a safer surgery to give Daehyun cochlear implants! How could you? This is our child!”

Youngjae was quick to notice that their mother was busy venting her anger to her husband that she did not think about signing. He automatically glanced at Daehyun, who was looking at him patiently, and interpreted for him what their mom was saying. After all, his brother had the right to know what was going on now that he was witnessing it with his two eyes. Daehyun’s eyes quickly moved between his father, mother, and Youngjae, while Sunhwa winced at her mother’s menacing outburst. No one was touching their food.

The father replied, “I had to, for Daehyun! He needs to have a better life, and to learn how to communicate well with people so that our company does not get looked down upon for having a deaf president who does not know how to run the business. People will think that he’s stup-“

With threatening eyes, Boyoung made a shrill noise and gasped, “What. Did. You. Just. Say. About. _MY._ Child?”

Youngjae had been interpreting the whole conversation but stopped after he heard his father almost say “stupid”. Sunhwa and Youngjae looked at their father with horrified looks, and Daehyun looked back and forth between Youngjae, his father and his mother. He missed it when Youngjae was about to sign his father’s last sentence because he looked to his left and saw his mother looking very scary, and reading her lips, he figured their father said something that crossed the line.

Minwoo replied, “Honey, he’s not just your child. He’s our ch-“

Boyoung interrupted, this time not forgetting to sign, “Daehyun is NOT our child. He is not OURS anymore. He is MY child. The same goes for Sunhwa and Youngjae.” [D-H NOT OURS, MINE.]

Daehyun glanced at his siblings and their expressions were one and the same, a solemn and worried look.

Boyoung continued, “When we are done with this dinner, you can go pack and sleep in the living room, because _I am done_. I have had enough of you and your hopes for Daehyun’s future. Tomorrow morning, we are filing for a divorce.” [EAT FINISH, EXPECT YOU PACK, SLEEP THERE *She pointed to the direction of the living room* I FED UP. ANNOYED YOU AND YOUR HOPE++ PLAN FOR D-H. TOMORROW MORNING, US-TWO APPLY DIVORCE.]

At this, the father’s furious expression went slack.

“You can forget about your family life and focus on your job, because we are not having this conversation any more…and we are no longer married.” [FAMILY LIFE, PUSH-ASIDE, FOCUS JOB YOU…THIS CONVERSATION? fs[OVER]. SAME OUR MARRIAGE.]  

The father exploded, pushing back his chair to stand up, causing Daehyun to turn his gaze again. “HOW DARE YOU TELL ME TO DO THAT. I ONLY WISH TO HE-“

“That’s right,” the mother interrupted, and she only resorted to pointing at her husband and herself. “ ** _YOU_** only wish to help him. **_YOU_** want what’s best for Daehyun. **_YOU_** went to talk to the doctor. **_YOU_** wanted the surgery without even _thinking_ that it could cost _my_ son’s life. But **_I_** didn't want to allow that. **_I_** didn't want Daehyun to go through surgery where **_HE_** doesn’t know what outcomes he will end up with. I didn't wish for Daehyun to be deaf, _it just happened_. But I decided to embrace it and help him. Tell me, **_WHO_** is really helping him?” [I NOT WISH SON BECOME DEAF, IT JUST HAPPEN FINISH. I LOVE, I HELP-HIM. TELL-ME, WHO REALLY HELP-HIM?]

Minwoo sat there, quiet but glaring at his wife. Boyoung was on her feet, hands pressed on the table, glaring at her husband. The children were shocked and afraid to even move; this was something they had never experienced so up-close.

Daehyun looked at his father, and tapped the table to get his attention. [Dad, she-say, true?] _(Dad, is that true?)_ His eyes started brimming with tears.

His father could not speak and hung his head in shame. He got up from the table, and left the room under the heated glare of his wife. Once he was gone, the mother turned her eyes to look at the kids with a hard look, but as she began to take in the sight of her children looking afraid, she softened her gaze. She gulped as she sat down, brought her hands to cover her face, and a few minutes later, began to weep softly.

Sunhwa went to comfort her. Youngjae and Daehyun could only sit there, glancing at each other and looking to their mother and sister. That night was the last night for the family to have dinner together, and it was not a happy night.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

The next two days became a blur as the family went to court to file a divorce, with the condition that the ex-husband was to ask for his ex-wife’s permission to contact and visit the kids. On the second day, the father had packed his bags and gave the house one last look. The family was waiting for him outside. He exited the house and walked past his family without looking at them. He could feel his ex-wife staring hard at him, and he heard Sunhwa say “Appa, I’ll miss you” softly. He pretended he did not hear it and with his dignity left, he continued towards the taxicab waiting in front of the lawn, hopped in and never looked back.

Obviously, Boyoung had won custody of her kids, and regained her surname, Jung, but allowed her ex-husband to keep in touch with the family. As the father was becoming a successful businessman, he sent some money and gifts to his children and often visited the house as a reminder that he was still their father, no matter what; he loved them too dearly to let them go and forget about them. Even with Daehyun, though he wished for a better life for his son, and he blamed himself for his initial misjudgment of his deaf son, he checked up on him to make sure everything was well accommodated to his son’s lifestyle.

Even if it did not turn out to be a happy ending for the Yoo family, it turned to be a great beginning for the Jung family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daehyun's Deaf Speech:  
> “Ap’a. Umma. K’enshanayo?” = Appa, Umma...Gwaenchanayo?  
> "WAE?!" = Wae?!  
> “Bo, bo, bo, mord’u ’sang’ae…Umma…Noona, Yongshay…Ap’a, hoo!...Z’bal!” = (Nan dangshinye se) bogo (ddo) bogo (ddo) bogo, moduga isanghan (haedong)...Umma...Noona, Youngjae...Appa, hoo!... Jebal!
> 
> The next one is Zitao's. Be warned, that's the most horrific chapter among the four.


	3. Huang Zitao

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...A really lengthy background on Zitao's life, but absolutely necessary to understand why Zitao is written like so. And later in the storyline, something happens again that I won't want to reiterate. :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is lengthy af. Just sayin'. I'm not even sorry.
> 
> What I am sorry about is how explicit the violence is in here, because extreme bullying almost to the max. Whoops.

Huang Zitao was born in the seaport village of Qingdao in China, to a family of parents and a 5-year-old sister named Qian. He was only a year old when his family moved to South Korea. His younger sister, Zhenli or in Korean, Jinri, was born when he was 2 years old. Their parents taught Chinese to their children at home while they were learning Korean in school and in their neighborhoods. Their mother, Huizhong, was a kind and docile woman, whereas their father, Jianguo, was a stern and caring man. The three of them were very obedient to their parents, not wishing to go against their wishes or making them unsatisfied.

Growing up with two sisters, Zitao was very shy and a passive child. He would play and chat with his sisters inside their house and not hang out with the neighborhood kids outside. When Zitao was in elementary school, he was often bullied by students his age and older because of his soft and obedient personality. He would be teased and picked on by his classmates; he did not have friends because they thought of Zitao weird with his big nose and the creepy eyes. He did not question his teachers or headmaster, and they in turn admired him, because he simply did what he was told. Despite his gentle nature, every time when he got bullied, he never told anyone about it, not even his family and his teachers. He felt that his wounds were his alone to heal and deal with. He would suck up with the verbal thrashings and mocking, as well as the poking, prodding and shoving. The father was glad to see that his only son was performing well at school, but again, he was not aware of the bullying that happened to his son. Noticing after a few months that Zitao was only hanging out with his sisters inside the house and never going outside to make new friends while his sisters did, the mother felt suspicious and was worried for her middle child.

It gradually increased toward the peak of physical and emotional abuse for Zitao in middle school. He would get sneaked up in bathrooms and in quiet hallways, and he would have his lunch trays flipped, messing up his school uniform. Zitao did not miss the sneers and jeers of his classmates and from those who knew him by face. In the hallways, he could not avoid the menacing stares and tried to ignore the gossiping of students, but the constant whisperings were audible enough to hear without difficulty. At times, Zitao would be shoved violently against his lockers or the walls. Several female classmates would slap him on the cheeks if he ever did so much as brush past them. Yet he never told his family or his teachers. He would clean up his wounds in the school bathrooms before coming back home on time with his curfews. When Zitao got home, he would put on a smile and pretended everything was okay.

However, Jianguo unknowingly joined in the emotional abuse as he started to question his son’s meek character. Even though he was proud of his son’s academic achievements, he was mad at him for not being able to get out of the house and make new friends. He shunned Zitao for being weak; shutting himself away from the outside world because Zitao’s sisters will not always be around to keep him company, and that life is not living without making friends and connections outside of home.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

The bullying took its turn for the worst in 7th grade on a warm spring day, after school had ended. Zitao was on his way to his locker to get his backpack, ready to go home via an empty hallway when he noticed something off in his surroundings.

“It’s a little  _too_  quiet,” he murmured to himself. He looked around and there was no one in sight. Approaching his locker, he started humming to keep himself distracted from the loneliness and the fear slowly creeping inside of him.

Suddenly, he gave a start when he heard a yell behind him. He shifted his eyes to the side, to try to see them out of the corner of his eyes without turning his head, and refused to acknowledge his name being called repeatedly.

“HEY! ZIZI!”

“AWOOO! TAOO!!”

The said male turned to his right, purposefully walking past his locker, and walked in a calm manner, but when he heard the voice getting closer and the multiple feet of more people shuffling on the floor behind him, joining the voice, he started to increase his pace.

One of the people exclaimed, “The Freak is walking faster! Let’s close in on him!”

“You guys take the left! You, take the right!”

Panic starts to build in him. The bullying experiences that he had in the past had never gone that far to be more physical. Zitao tried to outrun the mob and sought a good place to hide. His luck ran out when he arrived at a T-intersection, and he could see that 5 people were cornering him, two people on either side of him and one behind him. The bullies had spread out so that there was no way out of the enclosure. He made his way to the lockers opposite him and backed himself up on the metal wall.

“What do you want from me?” He shouted to his bullies that were closing on him from every direction. “Why are you doing this? I didn’t do anything!”

In front of him, the leader, older than Zitao in age, gave a chuckle and a menacing reply, “No, you didn’t do anything. To the teachers, at least. You quietly walk though this school without any problem from the teachers. The teachers were not giving you a hard time. But in this school, there are also students. We’ve heard so much about you, and you did something to all of us. You have been making us all look bad, and you’re not even Korean. You’re not one of us… You know what that means? You don’t belong here, because you’re an alien freak.” 

Helpless and confused, though slightly terrified, with his back still pressed against the lockers, Zitao apologized, saying that he was sorry for whatever he had done, and that he did not mean to make others feel bad.

“Tut, tut…that’s not enough of an apology; in fact, it was hardly an apology.” The leader glanced at his minions and jerked his head towards their victim. “Get ready, boys.”

Terror gripped his mind as Zitao brought up his arms in self-defense mode, but it was a weak pose. On either side, one guy grabbed his arms and exposed him to the predatory stares, as the leader adjusted his jacket and started clenching his fists. Zitao whirled his head around in panic and tried to protect himself in any way he can but he was in such a vulnerable position.

“Argh, let me go! I don’t know why you guys are doing this. Let me go, please!” He begged, but the predators refused to heed his words. 

The leader rolled up his sleeves and stepped closer to Zitao. He grasped Zitao’s chin with his left hand as he inspected the face of his frightened prey.

“This nose could need a little makeover, don’t you think, boys?” The other guys tittered.

With two fingers from his right hand, the leader pinched Zitao’s nose, making Zitao wince a bit. It was not very painful but for Zitao, it was really uncomfortable to bear.

While pulling it side to side, the leader says, “It’s too big for our liking. I think it needs to be shrunken a tiny bit, what say you guys?” The guys nodded enthusiastically, their maniacal cackling echoing in the halls.

Zitao shook his head fiercely, trying to shake off the leader’s strong grip. He kept saying “no, please, don’t” but it came out so horribly nasal that the guys laughed like hyenas. The leader did not laugh, but simply smiled instead.

Finally, the pressure on Zitao’s nose was gone as the leader drew back his hands and Zitao stood there, trapped and gasping. The leader gave a chuckle and turned around. Zitao was confused but he started to relax, thinking that the leader decided against his own decision to “shrink Zitao’s nose”.

This was a mistake. The leader whirled around again and pressed his body up close that there was no distance between Zitao and the leader. This made Zitao suck in a breath as he turned his head to the side, away from the leader. He had never felt so uncomfortable in his life. He squirmed, trying to back away from the leader, but to no avail.

“What?” The leader shouted at him. “You never had a person come up this close to you before? Huh? Am I making you weird?” With his body, he continued to torture Zitao with his grindings and reached behind Zitao, about to grab his underwear.

He whispered in his ear, “Is this too close for you, Zizi? ‘Cause I like it when preys are wriggling and squirming; they’re so helpless, just like you.” The guys holding Zitao guffawed and did not release their grips. Zitao was breathing heavily through his nose, and tried to shrug his attackers off. 

Zitao yelled out with a wince as his tormenter pulled up his underwear from behind, the feel of fabric pushing up his lower region in a painful manner and lodged in his behind. He whimpered at the pain and discomfort, staring in disbelief at the boy in front of him. 

“Let this be a lesson for you to know your place in this school. Boys, let him go. Zitao, you can move now.” Heeding their leader’s orders, the boys released Zitao from their vices and stepped back. Zitao took a few seconds to look at his bullies, glancing at all of them. Nobody moved in this quiet hall, and so he hesitantly moved one step. Seeing no reaction from the boys, especially from the leader who was smirking at him, he moved another step.

 _Am I free? That’s it?,_ he thought to himself. _They’re not moving, so I guess I can go now._ With everyone’s eyes on him, he started to make his way around the leader when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and the dread filled up in the pit of his stomach when he heard the voice again, “Did I say that you were free to go?”

The hand on his shoulder whirled him around and then before Zitao could react, there was a fist colliding with his nose, and he saw white. 

_Pain…White, blinding pain._

Groaning, Zitao regained consciousness and tried to make out his surroundings. He felt a warm thick liquid running down his mouth and he raised his hand to wipe it off. Some of the liquid had entered his mouth and there was a metallic taste in his mouth. He saw the dark crimson smear against his jacket sleeve and on his hand, and felt the warm dried smear on his cheek from where he wiped it off. _Blood…He hit me in the nose_ , he thought to himself. _I need to get out of here._

_A punch to his cheek._

_A punch to his stomach._

When Zitao came around, his vision was dangerously spinning. At some point in his unconscious state, his jacket was removed and he was on the floor. Zitao could feel the blood still running down his nose, and from the punch to his cheek, he could taste some blood in his mouth.

A hand suddenly gripped his hair and pulled his head back, causing him to scream and wince as he looked up to four faces of his leader. He continued to scream as he felt the hand yanking his hair further, and he could feel some hair strands being pulled out of his scalp.

Zitao could make out the leader’s voice among the sniggering of the other guys, “I only said you can move, but that doesn’t mean you can move past us. And you were the smart one.” The laughter got louder and was ringing in his ears. Zitao tried to scramble back up on his feet when he felt something holding his ankles down. He looked to his feet and saw a guy holding his ankles together. Zitao grunted with every attempt to kick off his holder but it was feeble. He could not tell which was left and right, only that he had to get out of there.

_A powerful kick to his leg. Was that his scream? A kick to his ribs._

Zitao shrilly gasped for a few seconds. His eyes rolled back as he moaned in pain, and closed his eyes. Still having Zitao’s head in his grasp, the leader yelled at him, “SHUT UP! You ought to be quiet and brace the pain like a man! You’re pathetic, you shouldn’t even be making any more noises. No one’s gonna bother hearing you anyway.” And with that, he let Zitao’s head go and towered over his body.

There was a ringing noise in his head, and Zitao tried to block it out. The vice around his ankles had disappeared, and Zitao had the chance to finally move; instead, he laid there in a fetal position, trying to shield his injured body from his attackers.

Groaning and whimpering, Zitao felt the tears in his eyes and the blood coming from his nose, and suddenly he felt a hand on his throat, choking him. Opening his eyes in panic, he gasped and grabbed at his choker’s arms, trying to breathe for air.

The leader yelled at him, “Fight back, you pathetic and worthless wimp! Where’s your kung fu and fists flying? Go back to your homeland. You don’t belong he- oof!”

The hand that was holding his throat was released and Zitao gasped loudly. He looked around wildly and pushed himself up on his elbows to see what or who had interrupted his attacker’s rant.

There was a clamor of noise and yelling as few more guys came to the scene to help sort out the situation. He could make out a guy with hamster cheeks, a lean-muscled guy with thick lips, another lean guy who could pack quite a punch and had quite fiery eyes, a muscled guy with canine teeth, and a short but lean guy with cold eyes. They were all punching blows and clapping them on the ears. There were two other boys, a freakishly tall guy and a feminine-looking guy, that were a few steps away from the scene. The tall one yelled loudly at the brawling crowd that he was going to get the principal and the nurse. The feminine one came to Zitao and grabbed his arms.

“Come with me!”

Zitao resisted and flailed, thinking that this boy was going to torment him some more. He heard a male voice coming out of the feminine boy, “My name is Sungjong! I’m not one of them! My friends and I are here to help you. You need to see a doctor right away!”

Hearing the sincere tone in his voice, Zitao instantly trusted him and let himself be dragged a few steps away from the fight. Noticing that he was at a safe distance, he willed himself to sit back up against the wall and closed his eyes to regain his bearings. Meanwhile, the young feminine boy squatted next to him and kept checking on both the fight and the victim.

“A-a…are you okay?” the boy asked him, his brow furrowed in concern. Zitao glanced at him and nodded. He refused to speak, but eyed the boy warily.

“Oh! My name is Lee Sungjong, and we happened to be outside the building. It was lucky for you that this hallway was quiet because Dongwoo-hyung – that’s him right there,” he pointed to the guy with the thick lips, who had his captive in a headlock, smiling, “ – heard some screaming and we all went to find out where it was coming from. We were walking over there,” he pointed to the direction where Zitao had been coming from before he was closed in, with Zitao’s eyes following the trail, “when we saw you on the floor with a bunch of guys standing before you, laughing. The leader was talking but he was about to kick you before Woohyun-hyung stepped in. That’s him over there with Myungsoo-hyung, the shorter one, and Howon-hyung, the one with canine teeth.” He pointed to the lean guy, who was sneering at his captive that the mentioned Myungsoo and Howon were holding in their grip.

Sungjong chuckled and examined the scene. “Looks like the fight is over. Sunggyu-hyung has the leader in his hands now. Sungyeol-hyung will be back soon; he went to get the principal and nurse. You’ll be fine…er…” he stared at the person he rescued, wordlessly implying that he had not gotten his victim’s name.

A bit overwhelmed with the introductions of Sungjong’s older classmates, Zitao, still heaving, stared back. He was looking back with fear and cautiousness. Sungjong gave a genuine smile but did not pressure him to giving him his name.

“RIGHT HERE, PRINCIPAL!!” Zitao and Sungjong jumped with a start at the sudden shouting. “My friends have the bad guys there! They were beating up a student, sir!” The boys saw Sungyeol with the principal, the school nurse, and a student that Zitao did not recognize. The student looked too attractive to be a guy, just like Sungjong; he had doe eyes and a porcelain face except there was an air of masculine charm to him. The principal was looking cautiously at his guide but when he looked to the scene, disapproval was written on his face. 

Sungjong muttered to Zitao, “That’s Sungyeol-hyung there, always a screamer, hahaha! He may be young for his age, but he’s really a gentle, caring giant once you get to know him.”

Sungyeol led the principal, the nurse and the student to Zitao and Sungjong, who were huddled at the edge of the lockers in the main hall. Sungyeol introduced his standing audience to the bullying victim, in which Zitao replied with a horror-stricken stare. The principal looked at him with sympathy and instructed the nurse and student to take Zitao to the nurse’s office while he handled the bullies. 

Meanwhile, Sungyeol went up to the leader and towered over him. “What do you have to say for yourself now,  _leader_? Did you think you were gonna get away with it, huh? Huh? Huh??” He childishly sneered at the leader, who was intimidated by Sungyeol’s height. The boy with the cold eyes, named Myungsoo, snickered at the reaction and watched his friend with pride. Behind the leader, Sunggyu was holding the leader’s wrists behind his back but he was chuckling too at his captive’s scared reaction.

The principal walked over to Sungyeol and with a small smile, he patted the student’s back and said, “Now now, that’s enough of that, young man. I said I would handle this.”

Sungyeol did an “I’m watching you” gesture with his hand in a “v-sign”, swiveling his hand back and forth, alternatively between his own eyes and to the leader’s direction.

“Can you stand?” The nurse asked as she checked for external symptoms, to which Zitao shook his head. “Alright boys, help him up and come with me.”

The stranger, along with Sungjong, helped Zitao up and they were led away from the scene. Zitao did not get to see the scornful looks from the bullies, but he was glad to leave. Sunggyu shouted to Sungjong, “Take care of him! We’ll meet you at the nurse’s office later!”

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

On the way to the nurse’s office, the doe-eyed stranger introduced himself as Luhan and mentioned that he knew who he was. Zitao’s eyebrows rose in surprise, and Luhan explained that they were neighbors.

“I had rarely seen you outside of the house across the street from my house. I always wondered why you never come outside with your sisters.” Zitao averted his gaze.

“Well, we don’t have the same classes since we’re in different grades, me being the older one here. But you know, Zitao, I was walking past the principal’s office today when I heard from Sungyeol that you got attacked. News travel fast when it comes to shy students and their bullying experiences.

“I have been keeping an eye out for you ever since you came into middle school. I’ve seen you dealt with the teasing and the taunts from your schoolmates. I couldn’t do anything because I couldn’t find you in time to save you from the bullying. It was like you vanish without a trace every time. I’m glad that now, I’m able to help out.” Luhan concluded with a smile.

“Jiào wǒ ‘gēgē’, hǎo ma?”

Zitao did a double take at the random Chinese at the end, and nodded happily. Sungjong looked nervously at the two of them and sulked, “Aw man, I knew I should’ve taken Chinese 101 this year.” Looking at the youngest of the three, the two Chinese students smiled, with Zitao already in good spirits after Luhan’s talk. The trio finally ended up in front of the nurse’s office.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

After the nurse had taken care of Zitao’s wounds, handing him a crutch and a note saying that he will be excused for the next few days from school, she excused him, Sungjong, and Luhan out of her office. Upon hearing from the nurse that Zitao was free to go and will be excused for some time, Luhan loaned him his jacket, telling him that he would check up on him everyday after school. Sungjong volunteered to get Zitao’s homework from classes he would be missing in the next few days, giving them to Luhan after classes were done.

Zitao looked between the two of them, a smile on his face as he realized how thankful he felt to have met people like Sungjong and Luhan.

“Uhm…why don’t you say anything? I thought we were already friends at this point,” Sungjong said weakly. A little startled, Zitao looked around for something to write with. As if reading his mind, Luhan offered him a mini-note pad and pen for him to use in the meantime.

“Don’t worry about returning them back to me, it’s yours to keep,” he said with a small smile. Zitao smiled weakly in return and flipped open the notepad to write “谢谢”, and then he thought about Sungjong and wrote “감사합니다”. He showed to them the notepad page that expressed his thanks for helping him out.

Sungjong shook his head and replied, “We should’ve arrived earlier so you didn’t have to go through this pain...”

Luhan reminded the youngest of the three, “But you guys arrived anyway just in time before things took a worse turn, it seems like…”

Zitao blinked, an emotion of gratitude stirring inside him. He smiled a little bit more.

Luhan looked at the younger Chinese male. “I’ll walk you home, if that’s okay? What with your leg and all…” he offered, in which Zitao accepted.

When he hobbled out of the office with the crutch, with Luhan and Sungjong carrying their bags, the trio almost ran into the six boys who were looking a bit messy in their school uniforms. Zitao had recognized them from the fight earlier.

“Ah! Hyungdeul, did everything go okay? What did the principal do?” Sungjong asked his hyungs.

“Yeah, everything went well. The principal gave the guys temporary suspension from school and school activities.” One of the boys explained before continuing on, his next few lines directed to Zitao.

“I hope you’re doing okay. Luckily we were around to save you from them. I’m Kim Sunggyu, by the way,” the guy with the hamster cheeks and a  _mildly terrible_ lisp introduced himself. The other guys introduced themselves, not knowing that Zitao had already known who they were, thanks to Sungjong’s rave about his hyungs earlier. 

Zitao shyly nodded to each in greeting and still having his notepad and pen out, he wrote his Chinese name and then his name pronounced in Korean.

“黃子槄 > 황지타오”

He showed them on his paper, as they all came close to read it but not before Sungyeol goes, “Yah, did you lose your voice?! Dang, when we saw you being throttled by the guy, we didn’t think he would go that far to damage your throat! I SAY WE HUNT HIS ASS D–“ _slap._ “…OW.”

The boys had turned their heads towards Sungyeol the moment he spoke, and watched as Myungsoo slapped the back of his friend’s head, giving him a look that clearly warned him to shut up. Sungyeol whined at him, “Geez, you didn’t have to hit me that hard.” The rest of the group chuckled.

“So, Huang Zitao, is it? …Mind if we call you Tao, or would you prefer just Zitao?” Dongwoo inquired with a hint of curiosity in his voice. Zitao took a moment to consider it, before he shrugged and held up two wiggling fingers, indicating that he did not mind either way. The boys nodded with relaxed smiles.

“Hey, Zitao…I’m sorry, I should’ve asked earlier, but is it okay if I can get your backpack for you?” Luhan asked, making the younger man do a double take.

The latter had forgotten about his backpack, due to recent events. Nodding, he wrote down his locker number and the combination, ripped the paper out, and gave it to Luhan.

Taking it, the other male looked at the paper and nodded. “I’ll be right back,” and he was off.

Dongwoo slung an arm around Zitao’s shoulders gently and said, “Yo, what’d the nurse say? She’d give you a note?” Zitao was caught off guard by the daring closure for a moment, but reached for the nurse’s note to show him. Dongwoo read it out loud while the others listened, his arm still resting gently.

“Dude, when you come back, if anyone’s giving you a hard time, let us know,” Howon said once Dongwoo finished reading. “In the meantime, just get some rest.”

Woohyun nodded. “We got your back, you won’t have to worry about it. Some of us are a bit… _unique_ , but we sure know how to give people a hard time.”

Just then, Luhan came back and was holding both his own and Zitao’s backpacks, signaling to Zitao that it was time to go.

Sunggyu had a firm gaze on the younger student. “Zitao, trust me when I say this: you can count on us. Sungjong here told me that he’ll help you with getting the assignments, and some of us can help you out, if you like. And when you come back, we’ll be waiting for you at the gates. Seems like we’ve taken you under our wing, haven’t we?” The man chuckled. Sounds of agreement filled the air, and it left Zitao touched.

Zitao took out his notepad and flipped open to the page where he wrote his thanks to Luhan and Sungjong earlier. He showed it again to the guys, who glanced at it for a brief moment before beaming with satisfaction.

“There you have it, we’re glad to have you with us.”

The Chinese male smiled and nodded in acknowledgement before joining Luhan to walk back home. At one point, Zitao stopped and turned around, surprised to see the group still standing there, watching them. He waved, and the group mirrored back, some with salutes. Zitao let out a silent chuckle and continued on his way with Luhan.

Satisfied that their new friend was going back without any disturbance or trouble, Sunggyu and the others started heading back for their homes.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

_Hop, step…hop, step…hop, step…_

Zitao grunted with every step he took. Luhan felt bad, wishing for a way to help him that would ease the pain. Noticing the awkwardly quiet atmosphere between them, the older male decided to break the ice to keep the mood light and cheery. As he narrated, Zitao learned that Luhan was from Beijing, and had moved to South Korea with his family when he was 4 years old. He was also the eldest of three siblings, with a younger brother named Yixing and a youngest sister named Amber. They have known his sisters for some time, especially Amber and Jinri since they go to the same elementary school.

Zitao could not believe, that within the past hour post-bullying incident, he had made a lot of acquaintances. _Or they could really be friends,_ he thought to himself. He realized that he already had a friend now, one whose family is his family’s neighbor, and has been on speaking terms with them. He felt a bit elated and safe.

 _Father was right to scold me for not making connections outside of home,_ he thought to himself,  _there could be people outside my family who could actually care about me._

Thirty minutes later, they arrived at Zitao’s place. Zitao remembered with a chill in his body that the moment he opens the door, his family will begin to wonder as to what had happened to him today. Or at least, they will find out about what had been happening to him these past few years.

“…Zitao, will you be alright?” Luhan asked. The other boy replied with a shaky nod. “Because I know they don’t know…and I think…you should tell them today… This has gone too far.”

Zitao bit on his lower lip, feeling a little embarrassed at being caught. But at the same time, he agreed that today left a mark on him that he might not ever recover from.

“I don’t know how much damage they did to your throat, but do you want me to help explain the story…? You can write down what had happened to you, while I talk about what I had seen and heard, starting with Sungyeol’s eyewitness account.”

Zitao nodded, agreeing to how it would be done. Retrieving his backpack from Luhan, they walked past the front gate to Zitao’s house.

Qian was the first family member to notice something was wrong with her brother. That late afternoon, their mother had gone shopping for groceries while the father was at work, a Chinese translator for the Korean CEO of his company. Jinri had not come home from school as she had dance class afterwards.

Zitao’s sister was preparing ingredients for the family dinner when Zitao arrived home in a school uniform with a jacket over his blazer, limping. What registered in her mind first was not her brother limping with the crutch but the jacket. It was not any other jacket that Qian knew Zitao would own. She decided not to question Zitao about it and instead wondered what happened to her brother’s leg that had him limping.

“ _Tao-dì, nǐ shēntǐ hǎo ma?_ ” She took a moment from cutting up the vegetables and made her way to Zitao.

Stopped in his tracks, the brother had not once looked up since his arrival, and when he heard his sister’s concern, he slowly glanced at her with a nervous look. He gulped and wanted to answer, but nothing came out.

Qian felt dread creeping in her when she saw the look of despair in her brother’s eyes and noticed that he was trying so hard to speak.

“Zitao. What. Happened. To. You?” Her eyes widened and she tried to keep herself calm from going hysterical because she was the oldest sister, she needed to take care of her younger siblings when the parents are not here.

Zitao sighed and lifted his hand to beckon someone on his right to come in. Luhan entered the house and Qian looked at him in surprise, recognizing him as the neighbor across the street.

“Luhan? _Zài zhèlī zuò shénme ne? Fāshēng shénme shìle tā?”_  

“Qian- _jie_ , please sit down; what I will share with you will be quite shocking and not very pleasant…” She did what she was asked. Luhan took out some paper and pencil from his backpack and gave it to Zitao to write. Once the brother started writing about the incident today, so did the eyes of his sister follow the words.

Halfway in the story when he was about to write how he was being choked, Zitao stopped, for his hand was trembling and sounds of soft cries were heard. Luhan was stunned at the explicit details; Qian could gape at her brother in shock and reached out to hold his hand. That simple gesture caused him to break down and give up on writing. She pulled him closer, continued on reading, and afterwards, listened to Luhan’s side of the story. When they were done, she could only sit there numbly, tears forming in her eyes. “Oh god. So that’s what the crutch was for…and Zitao,” she stared at her younger brother, “The. Past. Few. Years. And we never knew?

“Tao- _dì_ , why would you do that and not let us know? We’re your family!” she exclaimed. Zitao winced before he wiped his eyes and picked up his pencil.

_Father was mad at me a while back, for being weak and not being manly enough. If I came home with signs of being bullied, I felt that it would make me look weak, as if I could not take care of myself._

Qian and Luhan read it and looked at him with sympathy. Qian knew that their father had been a bit too strict with Zitao, because he was his only son and did it out of love for Zitao. She asked Zitao, “What will happen to you now? Are you going back to school tomorrow?” He shook his head and gave her the nurse’s note to read. Qian drew a deep breath as she read it. “So that’s how it is, I see. Well, the family will have to hear about this, you know that, Zi-“  
  
“See you later, Amber-unnie! Mama, Jiejie, Gege! I’M HOOOOMMM – oh, Luhan-ge! _Z-zài zhèlī zuò shénme ne?”_ Jinri had arrived from school and was surprised to see Luhan with her older siblings, and did a double take at the sight of her brother.

 _“Gege, nǐ zěnme le?_ …Did you fall down at school?” Jinri frowned and made her way to Zitao, to hug him from the side. The older three felt guilty at the youngest’s naivety. When the three of them told her what happened, she slowly drew back from her brother to observe him, and without any words, hugged her brother.

Luhan smiled at Jinri’s affection for her brother and announced that he will be leaving to catch up with his sister as they go back home across the street. He bade them goodbye and told Zitao that he will come by tomorrow to check up on him and give him the homework.

“Take care as you recover, okay, Zitao?" Luhan said with a smile. The other male nodded with a small grin.

Fifteen minutes after he left, their mother arrived home with bags of groceries; the children had already set up the dinner table. Qian retrieved the bags with the help of her youngest sister, and went to cook up dinner immediately. The sisters broke out the news to their mother as Zitao came back, limping, from the bathroom. The mother had almost the same reaction as Qian when she saw Zitao walking around with a crutch and found out that her middle child could not speak. One thing was different, however, in which she heard that her son was bullied and the reason behind it.  
  
“ _Yàoshi zǎo zhīdào jiù hǎole_ ,” Huizhong said with a solemn voice. “I never knew why you didn't want to make friends; you were so shy and you would rather hang out with your sisters.” She sighed. “I wanted to tell you about Luhan who lived across the street but I figured you might have seen him in school often, but I was wrong to assume so. You two actually met for the first time today.”  
  
Qian brought the dinner to the table and all they had to do was wait for the father to come home. So the family sat down and Zitao had placed his crutch aside, leaning against the wall while the mother studied her son in a thoughtful manner.

“You know what, my dear child,” Huizhong said with assertiveness in her tone, “after today, no doubt that something like that in school have left quite a traumatic experience for you. I want to propose something to you…although, you didn’t want to learn them when you were younger,” she chuckled. “However, I think you’ll find them helpful. Qian and I will teach you Buddhist meditation as well as Tai Chi, so you can learn how to be at ease and seek calmness within yourself. Right now, you’re suffering from a lot of injuries, and your chi is bruised. Once you have healed, child, we’ll teach you. I have some herbal medicines to treat you after dinner.”

“Mama, can I learn it too? It looks so cool, and Tai Chi looks fun with all the arms and legs,” Jinri flailed her arms in imitation of a basic Tai Chi move. Their mother chuckled, “Sure you can, Zhenli. You can learn it too once Zitao recovers.”

Footsteps were heard as the father has arrived, and the family members went to their chairs. Jianguo then entered the dining room when he spotted a crutch leaning against the wall, behind Zitao, and took his seat. The father had been oblivious to Zitao’s condition, as the whole family were already seated for dinner.  
  
“Whose crutch is that?” Jianguo implored, nodding to the metallic, rubber-coated object.  
  
Zitao raised his hand, a bit scared at his father’s hardening look. Qian was about to explain to their father, but he held up his hand, silencing her.

“What happened to you, son?” his father gave a stern look. “I want to hear what you have to say.”

Zitao placed his hand on his throat and shook his head _._

“What do you mean by that? You can’t speak?” The son gave a nod of confirmation.

The father goggled his eyes at his son and looked to the others for explanation. Qian explained that there was a bullying incident today, and it escalated to the point where the leader had choked and verbally abused him. It was horrific enough that Zitao refused to speak because of that moment. Speechless, the father turned his wide eyes back at his son before blinking and regaining his composure. 

“Why…don’t we have dinner first and we can sort this out later, okay? It’s been a…” he spared a glance to his son, “…long day for all of us. First of all, Zitao, are you okay for the most part?” Zitao nodded in response to his father’s concern. “…Okay, let’s eat for now, shall we?”

Dinner went on with some chatter and some glances. Once it was over, the father asked Zitao to join him in the living room for some talk while the ladies clean up the dining table. Zitao tentatively reached for his crutch under the gaze of his father, unsure what to make of the situation.

“Go on and take it, I’ll see you in the living room.”

Firmly taking his crutch, Zitao made his way over to the living room. When he sat down and waited for his father, thoughts were running in his mind. He even picked up his parents’ voices in the dining room, murmuring about treatments and what they have to do.

It was a little while before his father joined him on the couch. Zitao had been playing with the hem of his shirt, missing out on how his father looked sad.

“Son, come here, sit on my lap.” The father patted his lap, and Zitao shyly obeyed. The father looked at him closely, and he brought his hand up to rub his son’s back.

“I want you to take wushu training, once you have recovered. I did not expect you to face this horrific event by yourself, and I think it’s time that you learn how to defend yourself when words fail.” Detecting the serious tone in his father’s voice, Zitao looked up to his father’s eyes and saw a fiery concern in his eyes.

“Your mother has informed me that you will be learning meditation and Tai Chi techniques from her and Qian, but I would also like you to learn wushu. It is a traditional martial art of fighting, and I advise that you learn it for self-defense only, and not direct combat fighting. You do not fight violence with violence, but you fight with non-violence, you understand?” Zitao nodded.

Zitao’s father sighed, looking down. “I am aware that back then, I had called you weak, that you would be living an aimless life if you did not have connections outside of home. I was wrong to say that, especially to my own child. You are a strong, bright child. You know what is right and what is wrong. Please forgive me. But know that I am always proud of you and of your achievements; the projects you do in school and the high scores on your exams, I have never felt so much pride for you. I am proud to call you my son.”

Zitao peered at him, noticing a slight wetness in his father’s eyes. He leaned forward to wrap his arms around his father’s neck, feeling his father’s arms wrap firmly around him. He knew that all was forgiven.

The mother and sisters had finished cleaning up and headed to the living room to join the father and brother, who had just pulled out of a hug. The family all settled on the couch and talked about what will happen in the next few days and afterwards. 

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next few days, Zitao was resting at home. Sungjong and Luhan did as they promised they would do, Zitao got his homework and a neighbor-slash-friend visit. Luhan was aware that Zitao would not be talking and whether it was a permanent or a temporary thing, he was still his friend. After all, he and his family knew Zitao’s family for a while, so it was normal that Zitao’s family welcomed him and his younger siblings over without hesitation after school was finished. Meanwhile, the mother had also treated him with herbal tea and medicines to help ease his pains and discomforts from the trauma.

One morning, once Zitao had fully recovered and was walking without need of a crutch, he grabbed his notepad and pen on his way out of his bedroom. The family was gathered in the living room, his parents watching TV and his siblings reading books. Jinri looked up from her book and saw her brother walking down the stairs. She cheered on for her brother, which brought attention to the rest of the family. Teary-eyed, the mother got up and walked to her son, hugging him. The father also got up and patted his son on the back with a proud grin. Smiling, Zitao pulled back from his parents and headed to the couch to sit down next to Qian. She patted his leg and asked him, “In good spirits now, little brother?” She earned a nod in response, before her brother flipped open his notepad. 

_So when can I start on the meditation and Tai Chi?_

Qian read it out loud and giggled, replying, “Why don’t you ask Mom and hear what she has to say?” Zitao looked to their mother and she gave a smile, “We can start the meditation in a little bit, but the Tai Chi will have to wait for tomorrow morning. It’s already past 10AM.”

Since that day, Zitao, with Jinri, learned Buddhist meditation and Tai Chi, from both his mother and sister, as to repress his traumatic episodes and keep his mind and body invigorated on a daily basis. Zitao had also attended wushu classes on weekends to keep his body fit and alert, but he still continued to choose not to speak, for fear of saying anything that would give him trouble.

As for school, true to their word, when Zitao returned to school with Luhan by his side, Sunggyu and six other boys were waiting at the gates for him. Suddenly, he felt that there was nothing to be afraid of.

Even when they all went their separate paths after middle school, some attending universities, some to different high schools. The frequent communication between Zitao, Luhan, and Sunggyu’s group became lesser by the weeks. But Zitao still carried on. He hoped that someday they would see each other again.

And sure enough, Zitao got to see his friend a little down the road, several years later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> > (-) jie(jie) = older sister, called by younger siblings regardless of gender; sometimes as friends  
> > (-) di(di) = younger brother, called by older siblings regardless of gender; sometimes as friends
> 
> > “Jiào wǒ ‘gēgē’, hǎo ma?” = Call me ‘gege’, okay?  
> > “Tao-dì, nǐ shēntǐ hǎo ma?” = Little brother Tao, are you alright?  
> > “Luhan? Zài zhèlī zuò shénme ne? Fāshēng shénme shìle tā?” = What are you doing here? Do you know what happened to him?  
> > "Gege, nǐ zěnme le?" = Older brother, what happened to you?  
> > “Yàoshi zǎo zhīdào jiù hǎole,” = I should’ve known.
> 
> On the other hand, the next one is the last one, Kyungsoo.


	4. Park Kyungsoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of Park Kyungsoo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A surprise guest...or guests, more like.
> 
> Deaf Dialogue is back!

Park Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were born less than a day apart – a few minutes, really. Baekhyun was born two minutes before midnight and then Kyungsoo at five minutes after midnight. They were twins nonetheless; the two youngest of the five children, and the second set of twins in the family. Taeyeon and Miyoung were the first set, and Jonghyun was the only one who did not have a twin. They were 5 and 4 respectively when the babies were born. The Park family had been at a family gathering, when the mother had her contractions, and had to be rushed to the hospital. The parents were surprised and became very worried because it was two months too early for their babies to be due.

The babies were taken to the Natal Intensive Care Unit and were placed in the incubators for at least a couple of weeks. The mother was saddened that she could hold her babies yet ever since she got out of labor. However, the doctors allowed her and the family to visit the NICU and see their newborn twins but they had to wear special uniforms to keep the NICU sanitized. Any fabric material different from what the NICU provides, and it would complicate the conditions of the premature newborns in the room. By some miracle, the twins continued to fight through. After a month or so, the mother was finally able to hold her babies and she was so overjoyed that her twins have made it this far, given their premature births. The family was really lucky to have another set of twins, and survivors at least.

Few months later into the babies’ monthly checkups, the parents, along with the audiologist, noticed something was different about Kyungsoo. Baekhyun had continued to pass his audiology tests, but Kyungsoo failed to pass most of the tests. He was not responding to most sounds at all. Worried, the audiologist tested and checked the baby’s ears. What she saw was what she feared, and so she concluded to the parents that Kyungsoo had suffered hearing loss from medications for his premature birth. Although not completely deaf, Kyungsoo still had severe to profound hearing loss. He could still hear but most of the time, it would be garbled or inaudible to him. The audiologist recommended that the parents could teach him signs but considering his hearing condition, they could still teach him to speak. It would only be a while for Kyungsoo to catch up with the other kids, in terms of age relativity with the speech capabilities. She offered that they could purchase hearing aids for him to hear better, to make up for his hearing loss when he wears it. The parents agreed and wanted to help their child do anything and be anything he can without his hearing loss hindering him.

During his childhood, Kyungsoo wore hearing aids and often used home signs with his family. The home signs were proven helpful to the family and Kyungsoo, because Kyungsoo was still not able to speak in sentences or with clear words, nor could the family understand what Kyungsoo wanted to say. Only Baekhyun could understand what Kyungsoo wanted to speak, possibly because of some telepathic connection between them.

The Park family was a loving, affectionate family. The older twin sisters were very caring to their younger boys. Now that they had twin younger brothers, Taeyeon and Miyeon had a favorite brother to play with, with Miyeon choosing Kyungsoo and Taeyeon choosing Baekhyun. Sometimes they switched it up but most of the times, it had always been like that. Jonghyun, being the oldest of the boys and the middle child between his two sets of twin siblings, took the chance to play with Kyungsoo and help him whenever he can. He went into protective mode with him whenever the family went out to visit places or for walks around downtown or the malls, making sure Kyungsoo was holding his hand and keeping his brother in his sight. It did not mean that Jonghyun ignored Baekhyun, because Jonghyun and Baekhyun were really close when it comes to getting physical and rowdy at times despite their ages. Jonghyun was very gentle with Kyungsoo, speaking loud and clear to his brother and gesticulating with his hands so he could understand, as he stared up at his older brother with his big wide eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

At school, Baekhyun would have Kyungsoo tag along with him. He knew that his brother was different but he did not really care. Like Jonghyun, he was protective of him especially at school. One time at their school, when it was time for recess, Baekhyun was hanging out with his newly made friends at the playground, and Kyungsoo had just came out of class, a look etched on his face that was almost like one of silent judgment. Baekhyun spotted his twin brother nearby and waved at his brother. When he finally got Kyungsoo’s attention, he signed to him to come over and join him. Kyungsoo hesitated at first but when he saw his brother’s genuine smile, he signed back with an “o-k” and came over.

Once Kyungsoo joined in, Baekhyun introduced him to his friends, spelling their names to him. Kyungsoo’s eyes darted between Baekhyun’s lips and hands, and the friends whose names are being spelled. His friends were awed and curious as to what Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were doing with their hands, and also as to what “those things” were in his ears.

“What are those??” The friends pointed at their ears. Glancing at Baekhyun for a moment, Kyungsoo felt shy but tried his best to explain.

“Dey are ma’ hewing eds. sho I can hew bedder.” _(They are my hearing aids, so I can hear better.)_

When Kyungsoo sees eyebrows go up, furrowing brows, and the kids sharing looks of confusion, he started to feel embarrassed. Even much worse was the prolonged silence afterwards.

“You talk so funny. Doesn’t he sound weird?”

Kyungsoo mentally broke down and closed his mouth, feeling the warmth in his cheeks. Baekhyun was so caught off guard by the comment that he did not have time to interpret nor retaliate when another said, “What are ‘hewing eds’? and ‘bedder’?”

Baekhyun took the chance to explain that ‘hewing eds’ are ‘hearing aids’.

“Ohhh! They’re hearing aids, so if you don’t wear them, you won’t hear what we’re saying, right?”

Under the gazes of several of Baekhyun’s friends, Kyungsoo was blushing, berating himself that he had not gotten the words as clear as he hoped to be. He had speech therapy in school, often in his homeroom where the speech therapist would come once or twice a week to test and teach Kyungsoo on speech pronunciations and grammar. Hearing the words and reading their lips, he got the message; but he was too frozen to say anything. He shyly looked down to the ground, nodding in reply. He glanced worriedly at his brother. Baekhyun took in the body language and was ready to teach his friends a lesson.

“And what was that you were doing with your hands?” One of Baekhyun’s friends was fumbling with their hands, and Baekhyun snapped out of his ferocious mode.

“Oh, what I was doing earlier?” Baekhyun asked, receiving some nods in response. “That’s the sign language alphabet. My brother is deaf, so this is one way of communicating with him.”

“But he can hear us, can’t he? With those things in his ears? Hearing aids?” One of them stepped closer to Kyungsoo to inspect the device, which caused the deaf boy to step away, and closer to his twin’s side.

Baekhyun almost bristled at the sight. “Hey, back off, Jaejin. Give my brother some space…” The friend named Jaejin took heed of Baekhyun’s orders, and stepped away with an apology. Kyungsoo stared at him wordlessly. Jaejin took his silence to be offended.

“I said I was sorry, didn’t you hear me?”

“JAEJIN! Do _not_ taunt my brother like that,” Baekhyun growled, pointing to his friend. “He can hear you just fine; he’s still learning how to speak and listen to the words we say, with how much he is able to hear. It’s harder for him than it is for us, okay? Please do not, and I mean _ever_ , make fun of him for that.” Baekhyun looked around at his friends.

“Jaejin, you’re such a dumb butt.” One of them lightly shoved Jaejin by the shoulder, though her voice was good-natured.

“Yeah, Kyungsoo’s a good person…”

Kyungsoo looked to whoever was speaking these lines, and he felt a little better. He looked up to his brother when he heard him speaking.

“And whether he wears his hearing aids to hear or not, whether he signs or talks, or even does both, you’re still my brother. I’ve always been proud to be your brother.” Baekhyun smiled at his younger twin.

“Hey,” Kyungsoo looked over to a girl who had flapped her hand. He had caught it in his peripheral vision. “You’re alright, Kyungsoo… Don’t be shy with us.” He gave a uncertain smile, even when the girl was smiling brightly.

When his friends talked with Kyungsoo and Baekhyun, the latter noticed something was odd in most of their behaviors. The deeper the group conversation went, the more that everyone noticed how the deaf boy kept jerking his head around for his eyes to catch the lips and the face of the person speaking, and the more that some of them started speaking faster and more excited in a way that it was hard for Kyungsoo to catch up. It made him painfully oblivious to their sarcasms and secret looks when he was not looking their way. He gave awkward replies, and he looked very unsure of himself.

He decided to look at his brother for help with understanding the conversations, and Baekhyun was quick to start signing/fingerspelling the best he could. At this, the friends were sharing subtle awed looks and knowing looks at how Kyungsoo no longer has his eyes on them. It came to the point where a game was being played among the friends, to see who would not get caught by the brothers for being silly as the brothers have their silent communication.

It did not take Baekhyun long to realize that his friends were teasing Kyungsoo behind his back, silently giggling, flailing their arms in mock gesture, and overdoing their speech enunciations. He snapped right at once.

“HEY! YOU!” One boy stopped what he was doing, his expression giving off a “deer-in-the-headlights” look. A hush fell on the group as more of the kids regained their composures.

“What is _wrong_ with you?” Baekhyun lowered his hands, too mad to interpret. Kyungsoo, unaware of what was happening, was looking at him worriedly before following his line of sight. The poor kid was looking so confused, wondering what got his brother upset.

“No, actually, you know what? What is wrong with _ALL_ of you?” Baekhyun glowered at them with a snarl.

“If you think my brother is dumb, _think again_.”

Kyungsoo got startled when his brother pulled him closer.

“Do me a favor, look at yourselves in the mirrors and do what you did to my brother. You’ll see who really are the fools here. You guys are pathetic. I don’t know why I bothered being friends with you. Come on, Soo-yah, let’s go.”

He brought his arm to rest around Kyungsoo’s shoulders and led him away from Baekhyun’s so-called friends.

_“Baekhyun, we’re sorry! We were just having a little fun…”_

_“Yeah, we were just playing around…”_

_“Your brother’s really nice…”_

Kyungsoo felt the tense grip and stopped when Baekhyun stopped to turn around to yell at the group, “Come back to me when you’ve sincerely apologized NOT to me, but to MY BROTHER!” He then turned around and they were walking a few steps before he turned around again.

“Not today because I am so mad at you all, and you need to _think_ about your actions…” Shuffling of shoes and a few steps later…

“And I will be watching when you apologize. So don’t even think about making half-butted apologies!” Shuffling of shoes on the ground and this time, walking without stopping.

Kyungsoo could watch his twin in awe, his feet walking in sync with his brother’s feet, though he was not aware that he was moving with his brother in time. He felt guilty that he was the focus of attention and caused his brother to be upset with the group of Baekhyun’s friends that Kyungsoo had only just met today.

“Am showee, hyung…” _(I’m sorry, hyung…)_

Baekhyun stopped in his tracks. He wheeled around to look at him in disbelief, “ _What?!_ Kyungsoo-yah, why are you apologizing? Those jerks are the ones that need to apologize. You did nothing, _absolutely nothing_ , to them and you ended up being teased!”

He saw how guilty Kyungsoo looked while maintaining eye contact, and softened his voice. “I had to stop them and end it… Don’t apologize, okay?” He put his hands on his younger twin’s shoulders. “Wipe that guilty look off your face. You and I, we’re twins but we’re also a family. If anything happens to you, I don’t know what I’d do. You’d tell me if anyone’s bothering yo- wait…” Kyungsoo suddenly frowned at his brother at the abrupt change of words.

“…Has there been others teasing you that I don’t know about??” Kyungsoo widened his eyes and shook his head, genuinely telling the truth.

“No, na’ weely…na’ dat I know of.” _(No, not really…not that I know of.)_

 _“Kyungsoo…”_ Baekhyun had a warning tone in his voice. “I’m your brother…”

“I zwer, ‘oness!” _(I swear, honest!)_ Kyungsoo made a “cross-my-heart” gesture. He could see the protective look on his brother’s face yielding to melt into a genuine and caring expression. The two of them shared a smile before Baekhyun let the subject drop.

 ** _BRRRRRING BZZT BRRRRING BZZT…_** The bell rang, signaling that recess was over.

“That’s the bell…Anyway, they’ll have to mess with me if they messed with you. Now come on, let’s walk to class, shall we?” Kyungsoo nodded, excitement in his bones because they were heading to their shared classroom once again.

**_Rapid footsteps are heard across the school hallways…_ **

**_Loud chatters and laughter fill the air…_ **

**_Children are weaving through human traffic to get to their classes or taking their time…_ **

Just as the brothers were about to walk to their destination, Kyungsoo was looking around when his eyes landed on a couple of boys with their hands in flurried movements. He stopped as Baekhyun unknowingly went on ahead to enter the classroom.

It was a set of twins, though one was brown-haired and the other blonde-haired, but they almost looked alike from a distance. They were signing to each other, with their faces showing emotions as raw as they can be. As if his eyes were not big enough, he widened his eyes so greatly in awe that anyone could make out the whiteness of his eyes surrounding his black irises.

His knowledge of signing vocabulary was limited, but he could make out some of the familiar signs because he used them at home often. In fact, he was actually overwhelmed with the speed of the twins’ signings.

 _They both must be deaf to sign so fast and still understand everything,_ Kyungsoo thought to himself.

**_“YANYE, UBEHEA!”_ **

His hearing aids picked up a voice from behind him, calling out a name. The same shout had caused the blonde-haired twin to look around. He looked around too to see who shouted when he heard it again.

“YOUNGJAE, OVER HERE!”

Kyungsoo looked to his left just in time to see a boy running past him towards the twins, and Youngjae waved at the approaching visitor.

 _The blonde one actually heard him…_ Kyungsoo thought to himself. His eyes scanned for any sign of hearing aids, but found none.

Kyungsoo knew Youngjae had signed something to his brother about the boy, because his brother turned around and waved at him as well. The boy gave a short sign but continued to talk. Youngjae started to sign and talk alternatively, as Daehyun was watching him most of the time, often glancing at the talking boy.

“Soo!”

Kyungsoo turned his head to the source of his brother’s voice, where Baekhyun was standing with his back against the door.

“Come on!” He grinned, oblivious to what had just happened. Kyungsoo did not realize he had been standing in the same spot for a while and he ran into the classroom.

Walking over to his desk, Kyungsoo played the scene in his head. He was _oh so curious_ about the twins.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

After school, Kyungsoo was searching for the twins that he saw earlier in the day. No luck for him, but Baekhyun was watching him with a suspicious manner.

“Are you looking for someone, Soo-yah?” Baekhyun asked him warily before he brightened. “Yah, did you make a new friend already?”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “No…but…” he explained to him what he had seen after recess before their last class. Baekhyun raised his eyebrows in astonishment.

“Well, I’ll help you find them! Wait, doesn’t this whole thing sound creepy to you though? I mean, we hardly even know them, and you heard one of the twins’ names.”  
  
Kyungsoo rubbed his lips together in a thoughtful manner. He shook his head and reasoned, “Sinz we bod know some shigns an’ da affabet, we can jus’ go up to dem de neckss time we see dem an’ indrodoos owzelf. I’m shure dey, well Youn’zae’s brodder, won’ min’ havin’ anodder grup offrenz who can commyunicay’t amos az eaz’ly wid’im, er, I min’dem.” _(Since we both know some signs and the alphabet, we can just go up to them the next time we see them and introduce ourselves. I’m sure they, well Youngjae’s brother, won’t mind having another group of friends who can communicate almost as easily with him, er I mean them.)_

Baekhyun seemed to think about it and complied with his brother. He trusted his brother’s instinct, knowing that he is not the one with the hearing loss. _This could be the chance Kyungsoo was waiting for_ , he thought to himself.

The next few weeks had passed with no luck in finding them, but they did get opportunities to read some signing books and learn about them in their own time.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

Kyungsoo almost gave up looking for them until he ran into a familiar brown-haired boy just a few weeks before school ended its term. He had left the school bathroom to go back to class when, in the hallway, he bumped into the boy he was looking for months. He gasped softly at what he saw and was in a temporary mind shock. The brown-haired boy said, “I’m sho sowwy” with his hands out, as if surrendering to him. Kyungsoo shook his head out of his reverie, smiling at him, [FINE++, fs[OK]. SAME-ME SORRY.] _(It’s okay, I’m sorry too.)_

The boy widened his eyes at Kyungsoo, as if he had seen a ghost. His eyebrows went up. [YOU KNOW A-S-L, YOU?] _(You know ASL?)_

The black-haired boy nodded before he shrugged. [NOT MUCH, BUT SOME.] _(Kinda, not a lot, but I know some.)_

[SERIOUS? *The boy slapped his hand on the side of his head* WOW, FIRST TIME MEET SOMEONE KNOW SIGN-SIGN! “HEARING-AIDS”, YOU HAVE! MY NAME fs{YOO DAEHYUN}. NAME SIGN *He traced along his lips with his left thumb and left index finger.* ME AGE 12. YOUR NAME WHAT?] The kid named Daehyun smiled with a look of excitement. _(Seriously? Wow! I’ve never met someone like me before! And you have hearing aids! My name is Daehyun. 12 years old. What’s yours?)_

“Uh…”

The whole time when Daehyun was signing, Kyungsoo was dying on the inside. He had widened his eyes in shock and utter disbelief at how fast Daehyun signed to him. He felt so guilty being overwhelmed with the speed and looking at the excitement on the boy’s face, completely at loss for words. At least he learned the boy’s name: Daehyun. He gulped.

A few seconds of silence passed and Daehyun looked a little confused.

Kyungsoo realized with a jolt that Daehyun was waiting for him to respond. He tried to smile and to sign back to him, with a few times tripping over the correct signs.

[SORRY. I “NOT-KNOW” LOT A-S-L SIGN. I WEAR-CLOTHES?… I fs[WEAR]… “HEARING-AIDS”. FINGERSPELLING CAN, BUT… HOME SIGNS fs[EASY] KNOW. SORRY, I …LIKE…FEEL fs[FELT LOST]… PLEASE, SLOW SIGN, PLEASE?] _(I’m so sorry, I don’t know much ASL signs. I wear clothes?…uh, I wear hearing aids. I can fingerspell, but I know easy home signs. I like? I feel…I felt lost earlier, could you please sign slowly?)_

Daehyun made an “oh!” look as Kyungsoo explained that he did not know many signs. He smiled at Kyungsoo when he read his attempts on signing, and was being patient with him, nodding in encouragement. When Kyungsoo asked him to sign slowly, he chuckled, bowing his head a few times.

[UNDERSTAND. AGAIN WILL.] Daehyun signed with a slower pace. _(I understand, will sign again)._ He repeated what he said earlier but slowly and with clear enunciation, so that Kyungsoo could catch everything. After several “oh”s and “I knew it”s, once Kyungsoo got it, he signed back to him with confidence, mimicking the signs he learned.

[MY NAME fs{PARK KYUNGSOO}. I AGE 12 SAME. YOU HAVE YOUR NAME SIGN? WOW! SAME-ME! *He twirled his K-shaped hand on his right temple, pivoting on one finger near his eye*] _(My name is Kyungsoo. I’m also 12. You have a name sign? Wow me too!)_

Kyungsoo caught Daehyun’s sudden confused and frowning look. He stopped mid-action before giving a shrug and a facial expression of “What’s wrong?”

Daehyun replied slowly but carefully that Kyungsoo’s name sign looked offensive, but he asked why the name sign. Shocked, Kyungsoo simply told him that everyone who knew him used it because it was just an emphasis on his big eyes. Daehyun inclined his head and apologized to him, explaining that Kyungsoo’s name sign looked offensive because it was a stereotype for Asian people on the ‘small’ eyes. Kyungsoo widened his eyes and looked away, feeling foolish about his name sign and biting his bottom lip.

“Hey, Gyunz’oo.” Daehyun tapped his shoulder, looking concerned. [LATER, GIVE-YOU BETTER NAME SIGN WILL. FEEL BAD NOT. IT fs[OK]. I UNDERSTAND. *His face showed a genuine understanding* SMILE! YOU ME NOW FRIENDS!] Chuckling, he grinned so easily that made Kyungsoo give in and smile. _(Later, I will give you a better name sign. Don’t feel bad, it’s okay. I understand. Smile! You and I are friends from now on!)_

Kyungsoo smiled. [THANK. I fs[SHOULD] GO. *He lifted the hall pass* CLASS HAVE. SEE YOU TOMORROW?] Kyungsoo lifted his eyebrows in question and Daehyun nodded with a smile. _(Thanks. I should get going, I still have class. See you tomorrow?)_

Daehyun nodded. [SEE YOU TOMORROW!] _(See ya!)_

The boys, now friends, went their separate ways back to class.

Later that day, Kyungsoo told Baekhyun about Daehyun, and his brother was so excited for him finally meeting his new friend. Baekhyun wanted to meet him and suggested that they can learn more signs from him instead of the textbooks.

The younger twin chuckled. “Slow. Down. Is not eefen won day shince we met.” _(Slow down. It’s not even one day since we met.)_

Baekhyun huffed amusingly and promised not to rush anything.

~~~~~~~~~~lknb~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Kyungsoo brought his brother to meet his new friend, and whether by chance or not, Daehyun also invited his brother too. Baekhyun introduced himself, signing to the best of his ability and talking at the same time, when Youngjae exclaimed at him afterwards.

“WAIT, YOU CAN TALK?! Man, that is awesome. You and I, we’re gonna be best friends, I can tell. Our brothers are already good friends and it’s only been a day since!”

The four boys became good friends in the remainder of the school term, with the Park twins learning more and more signs from the Yoo twins. Kyungsoo and his brother learned to become a little more fluent in ASL, but then they lost touch with the Yoo twins over the summer. Just after school ended its term, the Yoo family went through a divorce and moved away. They had not heard from them since their last year at elementary school…until college.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you wondering about the fingerspelling for Kyungsoo and Daehyun:
> 
> B-ae-g G-yeo-ng-s-u
> 
> J-eo-ng D-ae-h-yeo-n


End file.
